Dogs are muscular and agile creatures. Their owners often want to restrict them to the cargo areas of minivans, SUVs, station wagons and like vehicles, but the dogs in question often have other ideas. The dog will often simply leap from the cargo area over the last row of seats—and sometimes over the next row of seats as well. Without modification, a typical vehicle interior presents little impediment to a dog prancing its muddy paws on passengers and their seating and anointing all of the vehicle's side windows with nose juice.
To restrict dogs' boisterous activity and the concomitant mess, pet barriers have been developed which can be installed in vehicle interiors immediately behind a row of seats. One such pet barrier is seen in FIG. 1. The prior art pet barrier 100 has left and right poles or stanchions 102 and 104. Each pole 102, 104 has a threaded cylindrical steel rod 106 that is slidably received within a respective steel tube 108. A top end of the steel tube 108 has a diminished diameter and receives a top cup 110 that is formed from a somewhat yieldable plastic. The cup 110 has a thin sidewall and terminates in a thin annulus 112 that contacts the vehicle headliner. The annulus 112 is so thin that the vehicle headliner is often permanently marred by the cup 110 being pressed into it. The top cup 110 has a limited ability to conform to a typically concave surface formed by the headliner, particularly at the corners where the headliner transitions to the side of the vehicle interior.
The barrier 100 includes at least two fences 114, 116, installed on the poles 104, 106 to be vertically spaced from each other. Taking fence 114 as an example, the fence 114 is affixed to the steel tubes 108 by two plastic brackets 118. Each bracket 118 has a cylindrically-shaped body that is slotted at its rear (not shown) so that the bracket 118 may be snapped onto a respective pole tube 108. Each bracket 118 is fastened with a screw or bolt that clamps the bracket 118 to the tube 104 or 106 and also tightens the bracket 118 around the fence 114 or 116. Once tightened, these are not easily adjusted. Each bracket 118 has an upper fence attachment member 120 and, vertically spaced from it, a lower fence attachment member 122. The fence attachment members 120, 122 have bores 124, 126 that receive respective steel fence tubes 128, 130.
Each fence tube 128, 130 has a left end 132 and a right end 134 onto which are installed plastic caps 136. Each cap has a central bore for receiving a respective end of a metal slide 138, curved after the fashion of a trombone slide. The slides 138 slide within tubes 128, 130 and may be moved by the consumer to appropriate positions. The slides 138 retain their lateral positions by frictional force alone.
Each threaded rod 106 terminates in a hollow bottom cup 140 formed of somewhat yieldable plastic. The cups 140 have thin sidewalls and terminate in a bottom annulus 142 that is thin, and which has a tendency to mar the supporting surface into which it is pressed in use. Each threaded rod 106 further has a wingnut 144 that is threaded onto it. The wingnut 144 supports a bottom end 146 of the steel pole tube 108. In order to install the poles 102, 104 into the vehicle interior, the user turns the wingnut 144 on the rod 106 until the length of the pole 102 or 104 extends completely between the headliner and the supporting surface. The user then turns the wingnut 144 a few more revolutions so that the pole 102 or 104 is press-fit between the headliner and the bottom supporting surface. Wingnut 144 is the only means by which the length of the pole 102 or 104 may be adjusted, and getting the pole to the right length can be a tedious exercise. Further, and prior to installation, the wingnut 144 does not prevent the threaded rod 106 from simply falling out of the bottom of the pole tube 108.
A further fence 148 optionally may be installed on pole tubes 108 by associated fence brackets 150 and 152, but the positioning of the optional fence 148 is limited by the length of the pole tube 108 and cannot be installed on the threaded rods 106.
The barrier 100 could be improved at least from the standpoints of its installability into vehicles without damaging the vehicle headliner and the support surface, its conformability to concave surfaces of the vehicle interior, its adaptability to vehicle interiors of various heights, and the time that it takes to adjust the poles to appropriate lengths.